The Elipson Planet L loudspeaker

Form & function

The phrase 'form follows function' is probably a bit overused, but I
believe it still applies as much as it ever did. It came to my mind
while I was listening to the Elipson Planet L speakers. It would be
very easy to dismiss these speakers as a life style product because of
their cool and attractive shape, but I think there's more going on
here than meets the eye, and the form could well be explained by the
function.

Let's start with a good look at the speakers. They feature a 30cm
spherical enclosure with a concentric, or coaxial, driver, consisting
of a 6.5 inch paper midwoofer with a 1 inch soft dome tweeter at the
centre. The cabinets are ported at the back and made from some sort of
resin. They are single wire only (fine with me), through very nice,
Elipson branded, terminals. The drivers are protected by a stylish
metal and foam grille that attaches magnetically to the speaker
cabinet. These loudspeakers can be put on a stand or any other firm
surface with a set of rings provided. Further options are wall mounts
and even ceiling mounts, utilising steel wires, but mine actually came
with sturdy stainless steel floor stands that match the style of the
speakers very well, although some of my visitors thought the base was
too big in relation to the speaker itself. This does make it very
stable, of course, especially as the base is very heavy. The speaker
cable can even be pulled through the stand's tube, making it almost
invisible. Mine came in a very attractive shiny red colour, but you
can also have them in black or white.

Does that sound like a life style product? Probably yes, but that
still doesn't mean it isn't a decent speaker as well. That's because
almost all of these things also make perfect sense from a sound
quality point of view. A spherical enclosure prevents internal
resonances and is strong and resistant to vibration. It also is the
perfect shape for preventing reflections caused by the sharp edges of
more traditional cabinets. And a concentric driver may look good, it
also minimises phase errors and gives a very even distributions of the
sound in all directions, certainly in combination with the spherical
shape. Even the robust and heavy stand helps to prevent vibration and
coupling to the floor.

And that is the true meaning of the phrase 'form follows function': a
design that is only optimised to do whatever it is supposed to do as
well as it possibly can will often also end up looking good. The fact
that these speakers are made from very nice materials and finished
perfectly may help too, but the fact remains that there's actually
nothing ornamental on these speakers and everything about them
basically serves one purpose: reproducing music. Did I mention they
are French? They do remind me of the better French cars: elegant,
quirky and surprisingly practical, all at a reasonable price. Vive la
France!

For what it's worth: I actually find them stunning, and most visitors
seemed to agree. And there's also no denying that they work very well:
they are easy to put together, easy to connect, easy to position, and
they don't take up much space. Everything about them seems to be very
well engineered and beautifully made. Build quality is exemplary,
certainly at this price. Other manufacturers use spherical enclosures
and/or coaxial drivers too, but most are more expensive or smaller
than the Planet L's, not to mention less good looking, making these
Elipsons seem like very good value in comparison.

The sound

I tried them with the grilles on first, and they certainly look good
that way, but the design mantra mentioned above seems to have met its
limits here, as the Planet L's do sound better without them. On
inspection it soon becomes clear why, as the grilles create quite a
high, straight ridge around the drivers, basically ruining the
potential advantages of that wonderful spherical cabinet. Luckily, the
magnetic attachment works a treat and removing and re-attaching the
grilles is a doddle. Most people even seemed to prefer the looks
without them, although opinions varied on that.

The Planet L's are an easy load on paper, with a nominal impedance of
8 ohms and a specified sensitivity of 90 dB/Watt. So I initially used
them with my Icon Audio Stereo 40 mk3 valve amplifier, which worked
very well for the midrange and the top end, but left the lower
frequencies sounding a bit soft and woolly. It wasn't unpleasant, but
certainly lacked some impact and drive. So I tried my Usher R1.5
transistor power house, and that made things a lot better. The
midrange and top end lost a little bit of their magic, but the bass
and lower mids improved tremendously. There was considerably more
drive and rhythmically things improved too. I was now also able to
play a lot louder before things started falling apart, which is always
a nice bonus. Mind you, this didn't turn the Planet L's into party
speaker: there are still clear limitations in volume, but for normal
use in an average room they now provided more than enough volume. What
it does show is that these speakers deserve good electronics.

You would expect spherical and concentric speakers to throw a great
soundstage, and that's certainly what you get, provided you have
removed those grilles. The sound is open and completely disconnected
from the speakers, with wonderful width and depth and excellent focus.
It also is completely natural and unforced, all with spatial
reproduction bordering on full 3D. With good life recordings the
illusion is complete and the little Elipsons have no trouble
transporting you to the recording venue. Just close your eyes and
you're there. Obviously, this will only work when you put them far
enough from the walls, but other than that the Planet aren't very
demanding when it comes to positioning at all. They're also easy on
the spectators, as the sweet spot is luxuriously big and will
accommodate several listeners with ease.

On further listening these speakers soon reveal another talent: they
are fantastic with voices. And I mean really fantastic. It is partly
the already mentioned soundstaging that helps, but also the
wonderfully rich mid-range tonality, the absence of any aggression in
the top end and the excellent transparency in the midrange that bring
this about. No matter what causes it, voices are utterly beguiling
with the Elipsons, especially female voices. This rich tonal purity
also works very well with other instruments, obviously, and makes
listening more relaxing in general - you just notice it most with
voices. It also means that listening fatigue is a concept completely
unknown to the Planet L owner. And, even better, all this happens
without making them boring. To the contrary, really, as they can be
very engaging, just not by being forward, fast or loud, but more by
exposing the inner qualities of a performance.

Then there's coherence. It is one thing to make a speaker that
produces decent bass, mid, and top frequencies, but a completely
different challenge to make all these work together as a whole. The
little Elipsons shine in this respect and produce a sound that is
utterly unmechanical and natural. These speakers do not draw any
attention to themselves, but instead make you focus on the music.

In terms of resolution they are fine too, especially for the crucial
midrange. The frequency extremes are a bit less well defined, with the
top end not as crisp as it could be and the bass lacking a little bit
of drive, texture and extension, but none of this is a serious
problem. There's also a quite clear limitation on maximum volume. You
wouldn't expect anything else from a speaker this size and price, of
course. Even Elipson has to obey the laws of physics. None of these
things matter, as long as you use them in small to medium size rooms
and don't expect them to do heavy metal any justice. They do lack a
little bit of weight too, but this can be improved with the help of a
good subwoofer.

These Elipsons cannot really match the bandwidth and impact of a
bigger speaker, but then most bigger speakers at this price will not
even come close to the refinement and spatial presentation of these
Elipsons. It's a simple trade-off, as ever, and the Elipsons represent
a compromise that I personally would be more than happy to live with.
The fact that they look great and are easy to accommodate is a
fantastic bonus on top of that.

Conclusion

Dismissing these as interior design items would be a big mistake.
Granted, they are pretty, but they also sound as good as you can
expect a speaker of this price and size to sound. Owners of enormous
listening rooms and fans of hard rock need to look elsewhere, but for
the rest of us these are just wonderful, captivating loudspeakers.
They are especially good at reproducing a realistic soundstage and
simply outstanding with voices. More designed to be refined and
relaxing than to be loud and imposing, they are an absolute joy to
listen to (and to behold) and easily get my highest recommendation.